It’s been a year since a young Indian team came out of a grueling five-Test tour of England with a memorable 2-2 scoreline. “Our next four Test matches are going to be in India. And that’s going to be a different challenge. We have enough talent. This series was very important for us. Every player would feel a lot mature after the end of the series and that would really help us in the long run in this WTC cycle,” Shubman Gill, otherwise measured with his words during the tour, found an assertive tone to his speech after the dramatic win in the fifth Test at The Oval.Well, the subsequent home season ended up derailing India’s World Test Championship campaign with South Africa steamrolling India in the two Test matches in Nov. If the heroics in England was deemed as India’s Test redemption for the preceding forgettable tour of Australia, the consolidation post the English summer never arrived. Instead, an undeniably edgy Indian team has now arrived in Sri Lanka for a two-Test series with the desperation of staying alive in the WTC.Gill became the face of India’s Test cricket in England. But the mind was undoubtedly head coach Gautam Gambhir‘s. Gill arrived in England understandably like deer in the headlights after being thrust to captaincy post the debacle in Australia which saw the retirements of three stalwarts in Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin. Gambhir was his shepherd in the chaos. “Before the start of the series, Gauti bhai (Gambhir) said we are a young team but we want to be looked at as a gun team,” Gill had revealed Gambhir’s nerve-settling words.Gambhir did the heavy-lifting to ensure Gill the batter didn’t succumb to the pressures of leading an inexperienced team in England. One can’t write off Gambhir’s overbearing influence in Test and T20 teams in the last one year. Perhaps, it’s time Gill came out of Gambhir’s shadow to resurrect India’s reputation as a Test team.When he steps out for the toss in Galle on Aug 15, it will be his 10th Test as India captain which includes a Test against South Africa where he was ruled out due to a neck injury after playing three balls in the game. He has led in 12 ODIs. Technically, his captaincy career is still in its nascent stage. But current circumstances won’t allow him much time before the swords are pulled out.It’s unusual for Indian cricket to have a captain playing the second fiddle in the engine room. Every Indian team is eventually remembered by the captain it had. TOI understands that the power forces in the BCCI have been encouraging Gill to have a firmer say in planning. If the last two ODI series are anything to go by, one may say that Gill has been taking the initiative to drive his point across with the senior players in the team. He was assertive in his demand for bigger windows for preparing for crucial Test series.
The team management, with Gambhir facing the heat for India’s Test performances, would want to retain Gill batting with as little pressure as possible. Post the series against South Africa, Gambhir himself alluded to the fact that missing the regular captain had a detrimental effect on the undercooked batting order. Yet, India would want Gill absolutely in charge when he is leading the team on the field.In the first eight Tests that he captained, it was apparent that he had very little say in the XI that took the field. Be it the inexplicable reluctance to bowl Shardul Thakur and Nitish Kumar Reddy in a Test match or under-bowling Washington Sundar, Gill is yet to blossom into the undisputed decision-maker in the dressing room. One surely wouldn’t want a captain walking out with a team with the thought of using just 10 players.However, people close to the team management claim that he has come a long way from being the clueless captain fielding at long-off in the Manchester Test where KL Rahul literally took charge of marshalling the players in the field as Ben Stokes cruised to a century. Sources say he has opened communication channels with players, even reaching out to them after selection meetings and discussing their roles in the team. It is learnt Gill has become more vocal and assertive about his choices while leading Gujarat Titans, a franchise that swears by the tactical acumen of head coach Ashish Nehra.Save the England tour, the torrid Test record during Gambhir’s tenure has left him very little breathing space. With India’s chances in the WTC hanging by a thread, chief selector Ajit Agarkar too will have to face the heat if the results don’t go their way. Yet, Gill has to quickly emerge as the one who is firmly in charge if this team has to discover its true identity.